ADHD Podcast

Tim Lonzo conducted interviews with John Jay students about ADHD and its impact. The disorder affects various aspects of daily life, including academics and relationships. Students were quizzed on ADHD knowledge, revealing misconceptions. Some students shared personal experiences with ADHD, discussing symptoms like lack of focus and hyperactivity. They also discussed the potential benefits of a diagnosis and the challenges faced by individuals with ADHD. The conversation highlighted the importance of understanding and supporting those with ADHD. My name is Tim Lonzo. I asked some John Jay students questions about ADHD, their thoughts, and its impact on people they may know or in one interview on a student who was self-diagnosed. Let's begin by asking the question, what is ADHD? ADHD is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It's a neurodevelopmental disorder that intersects with multiple aspects of daily functioning and is associated with impairments in several domains. It may affect academic, educational, vocational, social, emotional, interpersonal, and health domains and worsen risk to health outcomes. I asked the students what ADHD was and I think that my conversations were really, really interesting. Let's listen to a few. Okay, I reckon we're recording. So my name is Tim Lonzo and what I'm doing right now is a podcast on ADHD. I'm not going to say what it is because I want to see how our students are of what it is. So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm just going to pull people walking around asking them to say no. For example, what's the A in ADHD stand for? Oh, I can tell you. Go ahead and tell me. I know that you know I'm not going to ask you. Do you know what the A is? No idea. No idea. No idea. What does the A stand for? Did you forget already? It's not anxiety. It's not. It's attention. Attention. That's very good. So now second letter D. What does the D stand for? Disorder. No, but that was nice. It's in there. It's toward the end. It's toward the end. So now you only have deficit. Bingo. Now it's up to you. H-A-D-H-D. Wow. I'm going to charades it. I'm seven. Look at me. I'm everywhere. Look, I'm running around. What am I? I'm seven. Starts with an H. I'm going to crawl on this table. People are going to watch. You feel embarrassed. I'm really what? I've had a lot of sugar. I've had so much sugar. Everyone else is like that guy over there is really hyper. Hyperactivity. ADHD. So I'm going to blow your mind with some stuff about ADHD because as college students, a lot of college students don't know about it. So let me ask you, are you tired right now? Okay. Yeah. You're tired? Yeah. Do you have issues like time management? Yeah. Wow. Three nods. Okay. So sleep issues, time management issues. Do you find it difficult to concentrate on some of the stuff that's happening in class? Yeah. Yeah. Concentration. I'd say so. Yeah. Actually, that one's a no. I'd be G-I. Any moment, anybody. Oh, for the moment. Yeah. After the fact. Oh, so after. After. I don't care. Okay. Well, I'm going to shock you by basically saying that those are the biggies. If you are a college student or an adult diagnosed with ADHD, does that shock you? Yeah. Really? Are you concerned possibly or nervous that you might have ADHD? Not really. Oh, that's good. Why would you say that? I don't know. I feel like it doesn't take too much of a toll on me. Oh. Ah. So you don't see how it impairs. Yeah. And what about you? It doesn't really concern me, but it is something that should be considered for my peers around me, I would say, just in case it's messing up their day-to-day life and I pick up on it, right? But definitely looking into how it affects someone's life or especially a loved one. And what about you? What if you find out that all of that you're feeling was possibly ADHD? Well, for me, you got this far. You know what I mean? So you better just keep on doing what you're doing if you're doing it well. Like you said, if it's just messing up something or if you can't get what you have to get done, you know, I think that's a different conversation. Now, if you had the opportunity to be diagnosed and know for certain, would you want to know? Yes. Yes? Yeah. Why would you want to know? I don't know. I feel like it can help change certain things, like how I feel about life. So you would connect to support? Yeah. And what about you? Would you want to know? Of course. I would love to know. I mean, truly being aware of what could potentially be a flaw or an issue in the future, right? You have to be aware of what is around us and what complications could come with it. But definitely, I would like to know. And what about you? Would you like to know? To be honest, no. No? Honestly. Why wouldn't you? Because, I mean, how do I put this? I'm an overcomer. All right. Overcomer. So, and ignorance is bliss too. I don't know. And I think just the label of it. Ah, there it is. I don't really like the label. That's how you're getting into sociological theory, labeling theory, like the label doesn't define you. Not at all. Now, would you be interested in the diagnosis if it came with support, federally mandated support? It depends on what that support looks like too. Because, especially for my high school, they just put you in the slow kid class and told you to look. But that's also not really helping you necessarily. Now, when you say the slow kid class, can you define what that experience was? What do you mean? Well, for me, looking as an outsider, like I had some friends, some really close friends, that I don't think were in there. I just think the same thing, they couldn't pay attention. And a lot of the things, I don't even think it's that they couldn't, it's that they wouldn't. And when they just don't want to, when nobody's behind you, pushing you to pay attention, I feel like that's when those labels come up. And when those labels come up, it's just like, it's easy. Just put him in there with the kids that act and behave like him. And he's working at ShopRite right now, which, no diss to anybody that works at ShopRite, but I don't know. He tried to go to college, dropped out of it after one semester because they didn't put him in those classes. So, I feel like it kind of set him up for failure. I don't have money and the position to diagnose and say that. So, now, would you be shocked to know that there are medical conditions whose symptoms resemble ADHD symptoms? Yes, I would not be shocked. Yes, no, would you be shocked? The question was, would you be shocked to know that there are medical conditions whose symptoms resemble ADHD and people can be misdiagnosed? Yes. So, it is a reality. Absolutely. It's a reality that he has to be diagnosed with ADHD, which it could be a comparison to, I mean, it can match directly to another condition, right? And like, that could definitely mess up and throw any doctor off. Well, here's one, sleep deprivation. Yeah. Do you know what the treatment for ADHD is? Medication, isn't it like medication? Do you know what type of medication? It relaxes your, I believe it's a, it targets a receptor in your brain where it's like your emotions, like how you, I believe it's like a hyper, it's a hyper, it's a hyper. See, we have very smart people here. Yeah. But you can just say it, it's a stimulant, like Ritalin or Adderall. Yeah. But they're just basically stimulants. Yeah. So, if you have sleep deprivation, what do you think the stimulant might do? So, this is Jim Lonzo. I'm just talking to John Jay students about ADHD. We're going to do a little ADHD awareness, see what students know, see if we can bump it to any students who are ADHD. So, we don't use any names, so you can tell me as much or as little as you want, but I'm going to ask you a very simple question. It's crazy because I was just thinking about it. If it makes you feel better, many people haven't gotten it. I know there's a lot of needs, no. All right, let's work this way, let's work this way. So, I'm going to ask you a very simple question, what's the A in ADHD stand for? Out of needs? No. All right, let's work this way, let's work this way. So, what do you know about ADHD? So, I know a couple of people that have ADHD. One of my cousins has ADHD. There you go. And something that I kind of learned through him is that he can't really focus sometimes on certain things, on certain tasks. So, what is that A word? When you can't focus on something, you need to have what? Attention. Ah, so yes, I knew you would work. What's the D? What's the D? Disorder? Well, that's the second D. So, now you only have two more letters to get. So, you have attention. So, your cousin, you're saying, has issues with attention. So, the attention is not quite there. So, what's that possible D? AD. If you don't have enough attention, then you have, starts with a D, think banking, bank account. It's not positive. Decreasing attention. Think about the United States budget. We always operate out of what? Source of the D. We owe. We don't have it. I don't know. Deficit. Oh, right, right. Attention deficit. That would be H. Oh, my God. I know, right? This is like, we love this thing. Well, you got disorders. So, H is going to be easy. Okay. Think they typically diagnose someone with ADHD when they're children. And what do children have in overabundance of? Hyperactivity. Yes. So, hyperactivity. So, attention deficit, hyperactivity. Disorder. Yes, or hypo. Because they may have too much of it or too little of it. Too little of it. There's a song by Tornado Lucas, and it's called ADHD. And he kind of talked about how he had ADHD. And in that song, it was like a sample of someone who kind of taught, who kind of like had a whole definition of what ADHD is. And like, ADHD is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, I was trying to refer back to that, but I couldn't. It's too heavy. Yeah. Like having concrete examples is most people actually diagnosed when they're kids. But a lot of adults, a lot of adults, you want to fathom a potential guess of how many adults like just a number. How many adults in the United States do you think are diagnosed with ADHD? You should do a range. I'd probably say like one in five. One in five. So, you know, that's like a one in five ratio. Give me like a number. Like a couple hundred thousand, a couple million. Like, what do you think? I think it's common. Oh, yeah. I was thinking about this in the morning. That is, because I think it's a superpower as well. I got that. I just thought of it. Um, maybe you could forget. Three hundred thousand, five hundred thousand. You'd be shocked to learn between nine and fifteen million. Wow. And I have to tell you why there's a range. And that's adults. Because some people self-report and they diagnose themselves, which is there's diagnostics. There are diagnostics. So as a college student, have you ever been tired? Are you tired now? Not now, but I haven't tired yet. Through the semester. Do you have trouble paying attention in class sometimes? Sometimes, yeah. Interesting. Interesting. I'm attempting to diagnose you. I know. I can tell. Are you nervous? No. Well, let me ask you a question. What if you were to be diagnosed with ADHD? Would you want to be, first of all? Would you want to be diagnosed? Well, I wouldn't mind it. The thing is, it's kind of self-aware. And like I said, I look at it as a superpower because the way that my cousin has told me things is like, he can't focus on certain things. But if he has a question and he's just thinking about it, he's going to go out of his way to do research on it and then find the answer to that question. So it's like you can get tasks done a certain way, but having some setbacks, but like that main thing of getting that information. To me, that's a superpower. See, well, you have a healthy attitude about it because there's a lot of debate on whether or not it is even a disorder. I was reading a lot of research in preparation for this, and some of it's really heartbreaking. For example, 7% of college students diagnosed with ADHD will graduate. Wow. Only seven. Only seven. Wow. Something else is shocking. 5% of students self-diagnose. So if you meet a college student who grew up with ADHD, 5% self-diagnose, self-diagnose. What do you think possibly the biggest challenge in a college setting would be for someone who's diagnosed? The classroom. The classroom. Medication. Sending medication. 71%. 71% the medication, because the medication is expensive. It's really expensive. I want to throw some more stuff at you just to see how you feel about it. So 25% of the students on a campus who use disability services for ADHD, do you know what disability services on your campus, what services they provide for someone with ADHD? Now if you're ADHD, I do know if you have a disorder, they help with exams and help with certain things that you would have problems in an academic setting, like your homework for example, but nothing about ADHD. Let me ask you a question. How do you know that? Well, I mean, it's important. How do you get this information as a college student? I got this information through, I think it was like a department fair in the beginning of my academic career. We had this day where we were kind of introduced to different departments on campus. One of them was for the disabilities. So you got like a little... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A little standard. So there was another study done by the National Institute of Health, U.S. government, and they determined that one of the biggest factors affecting college students on a campus is the fact that their accessibility services or disability services does is they rarely have websites. Do you think a website would actually be a good idea or a bad idea for someone who may should engage services? I think a website is definitely a good idea. See, now I'm going to play devil's advocate. Okay. You have ADHD, which means what again? Attention. Deficit. Deficit. Hyperactivity disorder. Yes. Which means that you have trouble paying attention. Yeah. So if you get a website that's really long, do you think that's helpful or not helpful? No. I'm introducing you to an idea that possibly the way resources are introduced to students who need these resources could actually be counterproductive. John Jay's own site is very long. I went through it. I didn't get through most of it because it was so boring, the fonts and everything. I was like, wow, if I'm suffering and I need to know what these services are, this is a crap website. Right. I mean, it's a lot of reading. I have to bring in documentation. I have to understand this. Look, I have a paper due. I don't even know what it's about. So I'm just thinking. Now, with this in mind, do you have a suggestion for how students who have ADHD, do you have a suggestion for what might be a better approach? Let them know that there are resources. Given that attention is an issue. I think that in college, the college setting, a lot of people have social media. So one thing that can possibly help them with this disorder would be like something like Instagram Reels, something fun. Instagram Reels are like a flyer saying like, hey, do you have ADHD? Check this out. Just something interactive. Yeah. But even with the website, I feel like a website could be improved. The school is to hire like a UX designer, for example, and kind of consult with people who have ADHD and kind of see what ways you can kind of format the website, make it easier to read, like a quick one-two thing. I feel like that could be helpful as well. But for a college setting, I think social media, pushing that agenda through the media would be the most effective. A lot of people who are neurodivergent use social media and interesting ways to speak to the community they're a part of. So social media should definitely be a huge part of it. All right. So now I've given you all of that information, which some of it is really, really sad and heartbreaking, but I want to pick up on what you said about ADHD being a superpower. Because if it weren't, it's really only a disorder because it doesn't jive or connect with the way stuff is structured, which means that an individual with ADHD is triggered by having to, like, you have to sit down to learn. But what if I want to walk around and pick stuff up to learn, you know, creating spaces that actually engage the way people learn? So I like how you said it was a superpower because with certain tasks, your cousin is very focused and is the best expert. So what do you think as far as the educational design, like, the classes you take? Like, you're not diagnosed with it, but the classes that you do take, classes that you do take, when you engage them, how do you feel for you as a student that doesn't have those challenges? Do they miss? Do they hit? What about the way a class is designed for you? You nodded, Joe. I really like when a class is interactive. Sometimes if the professor has an interesting way to kind of hold a seminar where there's like fun facts and kind of questions posed and things like that, then that's helpful. There is one class, for example, I'll talk about. I'm taking security management this semester, and it's a good class. Sometimes the professor has really good insight, but the professor's old and he has a very monotone voice, and sometimes he just, you know, the kids like to say, yeah. So it's just like, you know, I can't really focus in that class, and usually I just draw or I do research. And sometimes if you have something interesting, then I'll quickly focus back in and then do whatever I was doing. So I feel like it really depends on a person. Me, I really like when it's interactive, when I'm working with other people, when there's like a discussion type of thing. Because you're involving everyone, right? You're giving everyone else space. So something like that is interesting and helpful to me. Now, what percentage of your classes do you feel are interactive versus kind of lecture style that kind of might make you nod off? I'd say I'm taking five classes this semester. Maybe two out of five are interactive. Now, imagine you're a student with ADHD and that was like your class schedule. Now you can sort of, yeah, 6% or 7% is there. Right. They lose interest. Exactly. Yeah. And the support's not there. So anything that we've discussed today, like what would your one takeaway be? Um, one takeaway would be, uh, attention, attention, deficit, hyperactivity disorder. That's my one takeaway. You learned it. And the statistics were really shocking to me. Like the 7%, like that's, I feel like there should be a lot more resources on campus for students, um, kind of like, because again, it's a disorder, right? It's labeled a disorder. If people were to flip that mentality into like, this is a superpower. Like I get to choose what I want to do. And it's not even me. It's like my mind just like, all right, forget this. Let me go focus on this and kind of help students navigate that and kind of like, um, own up to it. I feel like, you know. That powers them. Yeah. That's statistically changed. So you're, so I almost feel as if you're saying that a diagnosis now with the attitudes stigmatizes people. Yeah. When it could very much like amplify it. Exactly. Exactly. Brilliant points. Brilliant points. Thank you very much. Now, let's see what happens. So this is Kim Lonzo. I'm back. I'm doing an interview with a student who, um, is diagnosed. No. No. Oh, that's right. That's right. You, you think, and I want to talk to me. 5% of college students self-diagnose with ADHD on a campus. Okay. So you're, you're not necessarily, I mean, a lot of students think about this and that's why I wanted to talk to you. Okay. But let me start off by asking the question I've been asking everyone. What does ADHD stand for? It's a big D word and another big D word. Yes. Okay. So psychologically it's considered what? Um, it starts with a D. You're there. Yes. Yes. Okay. So you got the last D. Okay. You got the first one, which is attention. Right. Indeed. So someone who, uh, suffers with it or lives with it rather, they have an issue with attention. Right. So they don't have enough of it. So it's, uh. It's definitely something. Yes, it is. Attention deficit and hyper. So here's where it gets interesting. Hyper, too much. A hypo, too little. You can be lethargic as well. So it's attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Okay. Hypo. You know what? Yeah. It could be. Okay. Yeah. All right. Depending. So there you are. All right. So what, like what aspects of ADHD do you feel that you present to make you wonder or question? Um, well, sometimes I do like lack focus. So that's why I'm home doing homework. Like I'll often get distracted a lot and I'm notified when I come home from school. Some nights I can't like I can't sit down. Like I'll do laps around my house and I can't sit or even I'm on the phone. I'm like walking around. Now, let me ask you a question. Is this something that has always been in your learning environment or something that you've just come to? Oh, I would say. I believe that it's been around for some time, but I didn't notice it till college. I just thought I just did it to do it. But otherwise, this could be something. Wow. Okay. I'm going to address because I'm going to start tossing out things because it makes sense because many of the symptoms or many of the reasons why college students self-hypnosis feels they go through the symptoms of what it looks like, what it presents as. And let me ask you, do you have trouble sleeping? Yes. Okay. Are transitions difficult? Yeah, I could say so. Okay. Um, what about you mentioned inattentiveness and paying attention? Those three right there are how adults with ADHD present. But would you be shocked to know that when I asked a room full of college students those same questions, they all said yes. I mean, this is like just a common thing. Well, environment plays a lot. Okay. So and that's why I wanted to circle back to your self-hypnosis because I thought, is it possible that the material that you're engaging with is a little bit boring? So I just wanted to stay focused or you attempt to stay focused on it. It's too long. Okay. So what I'm introducing is the idea that sometimes our environment makes certain things present. You say, oh, well, that's a symptom. But it could not necessarily be a biological symptom. Maybe it's a symptom of how you react to what's happening in the environment. Okay. I, myself, when I get home from school, you know, at least now I sit down for a day. I thought, like, if you have dogs or pets, the moment they see you, they get all super crazy excited because there you are. So like the idea of being home, oh, it's a long day. I mean, there are a lot of explanations. But do you feel that this collection of symptoms that you're feeling, do they hinder your ability to work at school? Like, does it affect your GPA too? So your GPA could be stronger. Yeah, I do think it affects performance too because a lot of the work that I could get done beforehand, I end up procrastinating. But can you give us, like, a range? Like, what range is your GPA? Right now, about a three. Okay. Three, one, three. Now, has that held your academic career? Has it increased? Has it decreased? Well, my situation is a little different because I took a semester off during COVID. I did it the wrong way. I dropped my classes late. So my GPA had tanked from that. So it was just kind of like an on the way up kind of thing. But it's been increasing. Yeah, yeah. So minus the setback. So do you feel academic improvement? Or do you say that there's an academic stagnation? Definitely stagnation. It's a little improvement, I would say. Not necessarily full stagnation. I'll say towards the end, after I do more major courses, stuff I was more interested in. Ah, so it's possible. Because you said when I was doing stuff that I'm more interested in. Right. Your engagement became easier. Yes, yes. A lot easier. I've seen a big jump in my career. So it could be the way the material is presented or whatever material it is. A moment. OK, so you're saying you would possibly be interested in exploring a diagnosis, knowing that colleges offer disability services. They offer accommodation, depending on your diagnosis. Absolutely, yeah. Now, have you heard, are you aware of what disability services does on campus at all, generally? A little bit. I had a friend who was receiving disability services. He was receiving disability services. I only knew from their experience. Did he like his services? I know this is hearsay. It's just his court. But I'm just saying, did you get an indication from talking with him? If he liked the services, did it encourage you, discourage you? You know, I thought it was really in the middle. Because it just sounded like the same, like, high school services they get. Yes. That's all I was aware of. Yeah. Well, if you were getting services, if you could ask for an accommodation in a class, what would you like to see? First of all, do they, because most professors do do that in general. But I feel like, Humber, you could actually, you can look at it, look at the syllabus and gauge, OK, this is fine, OK, fine. This is a lot of effort. So I may need just a little extra time on that. And you can communicate that with your professor individually, while clinical service is put in place. And with disabilities, it will kind of just be seamless, sort of like you having to go out of your way to do stuff for you. And I see it's interesting that you said that, because time management is a problem that people with diagnosed have time management. And asking for this flexibility as an accommodation, what do you, what are your thoughts on that? Instead of having to ask for flexibility, one of the resources that you would receive is help the time management. You know, that would probably be more great. It would be, instead of just like remedying the immediate, it would be more so helping you get over exactly what it is. So you would agree that a place like the wellness center, or I'm sorry, the disability services should offer courses, help. I think that could help a lot of people. But you haven't heard anything about disability services outside of your funding? Yeah, yeah, nothing. I do know where the office is, but that's only because that's where I went to get my senior cruise tickets. It was like a back office. So I'm going to blow you some numbers. Seven percent of college students with ADHD graduate. Seven. Seven percent. Awesome. That is insane. And I never knew that. Really well. Yeah. I mean, we can talk about possibly why. If you lose focus in your classes and you're having classes you're not connected to, you may lose heart with class. You can get really behind. You mentioned deadlines. People get really behind. They get discouraged. Students with college students diagnosed or self-diagnosed with ADHD on a college campus typically have a GPA that's 100% lower than their peers. Oh, boy, oh, boy. Okay. You're graduating, so you're leaving, so you're done with this part of it. Okay. But knowing what you know now, just from this conversation, knowing what you know now, are you, would you say you are more inclined, less inclined, or fine where you are as far as if you were redoing this journey? Would you want to be diagnosed and connect to services? You're less likely. You're like, no, I don't think so. I would say I'll be more inclined. More inclined. Yeah. Sure. So since you aren't aware of this, do you feel outreach, like do you feel the outreach that is done on campus to make students aware of what services are provided? Do you think the outreach is strong? Do you think it's weak? Do you have a suggestion for it if you think it's weak? That's a great question. You know, I would say I haven't really heard much out of outreach at all. I didn't know there was a disability service in my senior year, and then I was through, like I said, with my friend who has it. And advice? I don't know. I couldn't know where to start. We do have the involvement fairs. Yes. They are there, right? They're there. But when you see the involvement fair, this I think speaks to people, not just with ADHD, but other students in general. Having a giant book choices thrown at you and you get like a sampling of it might not necessarily be the best way to do it. It's like walking into a room filled with noise. So John Jay does have a website for, there's a website for disability services. National Institute of Health determined that colleges rarely, rarely have a website for their students. They rarely have a website to maintain it. But John Jay does have a website. The website is very long and boring to read. It's filled with all of these things you have to do, and it really feels like it discourages students more than encourages them. What would give you all this help? You have ADHD. You're not going to read all that. Yeah. I mean, if I think about it, very true so. But if there was a website, if you could offer a suggestion to disability services to improve their website, that would make it more interesting. What would it be? Do you have a social media page? Yes. Is it like ads or something? Not sure. Basically, I'm trying to build up their social media. I know, I think to myself, I use social media a lot. It's like quick media. If you get quick media, short, and it's engaging, it could probably help a lot of people. Sure, indeed. Do you think, if you have to see outreach on campus, is that fun to work to? But I do agree with what you stated earlier on the multiple tables, which is a bunch of different things. It's not necessarily the most effective. But even here, like in your mind, I couldn't tell you the amount of people that I introduced to your mind, told you what to do, and I've never seen them after that. Right. So, resources. All right, so I want to leave you with good news. Awesome, what's the news? So, in a study of adults, and there are between 9 and 15 million adults who are diagnosed with ADHD in the United States. Okay. They're more than half, 55% are diagnosed as adults. But as adults approach 50, the symptoms present less and less. Okay. Saturday? What happens Saturday? I don't know. Just a guess, there's no right or wrong. Why would you think that is? As you get a little bit older, as you approach 50, symptoms become less and less. Can you be slower-paced with me? I am. Really? I mean, that's not the case for every 50-year-old. If you were in a college, how would you feel? Most of my 50-year-olds are very active, you know. Maybe that might not be the case. But if I had to guess, part of the symptoms are the same. Maybe they learn to, like, adapt. I would imagine, yeah, I think so. I think it's adapting. There are a lot of things, like, when you're in your 20s that are crazy uncertain, but then you get more experience. Yeah, exactly. Coping mechanism. How you cope, how you manage. And they learn to manage it. That's the other thing. Well, I want to thank you for talking to me. I can only hope that this is okay. Look, I'm going to shout that out. I'm going to shout that out. It was quite informative. Thank you. I am going to be talking to disability services next. Yeah, I'm interested in absolutely their take. So I'm going to share with them some of what I've heard from talking to people to see how what they feel. Thank you again. Absolutely. Okay, so you were saying that as the concept, as you got into major level courses, it becomes more interesting for you. So you started to really lock in more. Yeah, and my grades increased. Right. See, that to me says that the way that courses are presented could possibly be an issue for all students, not just students who may struggle with inventive issues. And there are actually, I read a lot of studies, but there are a lot of studies that talk about for adults, how being inattentive is a major problem. That's the aspect of ADHD that is amplified that they've noticed. And I want to do some numbers that you see when you think about them. Okay. So 25% of college students who receive services from disability services on their campus, are diagnosed with ADHD. Twenty-five percent. Twenty-five percent of the people who go to disability services. So it's giving an idea of how many people are on a campus receiving services. So as a person who is self-diagnosed and you're thinking about it, I'm going to ask you two questions. One, do you feel that you would want to know? Do you want to be diagnosed? Are you interested? Am I interested? Would you want to know? No. But I'm not really. You know how you can get like little bumps, right, little dashes? I don't know. I don't think so. You'll explore that. Yeah, I mean, I would love to. I have a little fear in that. It's like kind of the signals attached. Yeah, I mean, because I have a friend. I like him. He actually got diagnosed this year. And he's like, and we're very like similar, you know, you should get diagnosed. I don't think about it. I'm just not necessarily sure I want to do that. Now, when he was diagnosed, was he only diagnosed or was he diagnosed? He didn't have a prescription. I'm not 100% sure. I could ask, but I'm not sure. So, if you knew that a diagnosis came with federally mandated services that your college would have to give you accommodations, would you be more or less likely or not? It wouldn't affect your decision. Probably more. Really? So, if you're aware that your college has services that are federally mandated, you would? Yeah, I would explore. I would explore those services. Yeah. After my series of interviews, I thought about talking to the Office of Accessibility Services at John Jay College. Now, research from the National Institute of Health has studied the effectiveness and also the availability of ADHD and other learning disabilities for students on campuses. Twenty-five percent of the students who use disability or accessibility services on a college campus either self-report or are diagnosed with ADHD. I thought by asking what services John Jay provided, I would be able to share this information with the larger John Jay community. This aspect of my reporting, I found disturbing. On two occasions, I went to the Office of Accessibility Services in order to interview someone about this specific topic. On both occasions, it was difficult for Accessibility Services to locate someone just to speak to me about the services that they provided. On the second attempt, I was met by a student who worked in the office but did not specifically know what services were provided. It was not his responsibility or his role, but he did hold up a flyer with a QR code and said, just scan it. Had I been a student asking for services, it's possible my treatment would have been different. But I did go to John Jay's website for Accessibility Services just to see what a student who might be curious if they have the need for these services would encounter. I found the page completely confusing, bombarded with lots of information, and potentially difficult for a student who is neurodivergent to navigate. When you actually go to the testing and services, it gives you lots of information with a link. It gives you lots of very comprehensive information. But if a student is having difficulties navigating this page and attempting to find services, would become difficult for the student, possibly even discouraging. My suggestion to Disability or Accessibility Services would be to simplify this page and design it with the student audiences that they are attempting to reach in mind, as well as friendly services if a student walks in that ensures that the student does not walk away feeling unsupported. My findings in my discussions with other students was rather shocking, but also at the same time really enlightening. I feel that the student body of John Jay would benefit most if its accessibility services were far more robust and there was more direct outreach to students in classes with a connection to advisement to ensure that students who may require their services are not only directed to their services, but the services as provided or have adaptability to ensure a student's success.